marmer

As for downtown in the 80's. Forget it. You left downtown after work quickly. Nobody wanted to be there after dark. Comparing downtown now to the way it was in 80's? Jeeze give me break. I think that everyone, no matter the age, thinks that things were better wherever they were at the time they were a kid. Kids typically remember the good things and see the world through rose colored glasses. When we get older we begin to see things how they really are.

GTO, I have agreed with every one of your posts. In fact, since I was a frequent Theatre District-goer then, I rather enjoyed how un-crowded downtown was. It made event parking and getting into the few Theatre District restaurants very easy. If you stayed with the crowds, it was perfectly safe. The only thing you didn't do is go out to dinner after a show and leave your car in the garage after most people left. I did it twice and had my car broken into both times. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too surprised to have that happen now.

So why don't you post some things that you remember that were cool about the 80s?

Me too. And yelling excitedly to my mom that that's where I wanted to live when I grew up.

Of course the buildings are all still there and still very cool, but driving down Louisiana Street to show off the new cool skyscrapers was one of my favorite things to do with out-of-town visitors in the 80s.

Agreed, but we weren't crybabies about it then. To hear people screaming today, you'd think it was escape from New York in real time. I'm telling ya, it was a much better time back then. The narcissism was innocent, not the evil brand that we're selling today.

Again, yes. You had to be careful but pretty much everywhere I went felt perfectly safe. I was worried about break-ins in my Montrose duplex, but we never had one. I do remember the statistics about murder rates but that didn't seem to be what we worried about then.

I am sure it was rough for some, but the 80s was the last decade of unbridled hell raising on a budget, and combined with the Boomtown atmosphere, it was a free-for-all.

Sorry you missed out on the fun.

Yes. Exactly.

Houston was cheap, fun, and safe. Within reason, of course. And there were way more quirky clubs/bars/restaurants/shops than there are in today's over-developed mass market national brand sprawl.

Late night House of Pies or One's A Meal runs should make at least honorable mention.

Though I would not put them in the 'cool' category, the 1980 Heat Wave and the also 1980 Hurricane Allen evacuation were certainly memorable. Of course, the Allen evacuation was far eclipsed by Hurricane Rita, which set a standard for evacuation misery that will likely never be topped.

I very nearly put One's A Meal in my list. I thought about House of Pies, but it's still here and mostly unchanged. Jamail's Grocery next to House of Pies would have been a good one, but I had only ten.

By the way, I like your list. Rendezvous Houston was really cool, for one.

Lockmat, what I meant in #6 was very traditional works, costumes and staging, such as Madame Butterfly or Swan Lake. I remember seeing both of those at Miller. Since then, I think both HGO and Houston Ballet have dropped their Miller offerings due to budget cuts. The last few were very reduced in scale, with premieres of unfamiliar new works, projection-heavy staging, etc.

Some of these have been mentioned in other threads, but I've been waxing nostalgic lately.

10. The Astrodome

9. Astroworld

8. Neal's Ice Cream

7. Cactus Music, the big store

6. Full-scale opera and ballet performances at Miller Theatre. (and not ridiculously crowded)

5. Easy, cheap parking everywhere

4. World Toy and Gift

3. San Jacinto Inn

2. Gilley's

1. River Oaks Theatre repertory movies

This HOA actually lets you check them out with a $100 deposit. If you don't bring them back they cash your check. If you bring them back they give your check back to you. I still have the plans for the house we were trying to buy. I torture myself with them regularly. If the house is being bought by someone wanting to tear it down then I will ask the HOA to keep the plans. Who knows maybe someday we will build a new house on the old plans. It was designed by Charles Sawyer. I believe before he became an architect.

As for the other house I will check to see if the plans are available and who the architect was. It's sad to see it torn down as it's such a unique home. The living room was round and the builder told me the oven opens in a gull wing fashion. Here is a pic from a couple of years ago before the mold took over.

I'm usually poor at posting pics so forgive me if it doesn't show up.

That's the Cohen house on Moonlight, for anyone who comes late to this thread. It had its own thread in Houston Mod.

Pardon my ineptness, but I cannot tell from the first photo (cropped 60's shot) where the mansion, driveway, etc. is. I'm assuming it's still standing in the 1960 pic but I cannot see it. Can anyone enlighten me as to where the structure/compound is shown on the early photo? I try to use the 'star' and 'diamond' shapes that were etched into the yard to pinpoint its location but don't see them. Thanks in advance for your help.

Boy, the early '70s were hard on mansions, weren't they? Glennlee, Wayside, Shadyside, Domain Privee, the Meyer house... am I forgetting any? (Not counting of course the ravenous mansion teardown frenzy of the 1920s when downtown and the South End fell to developers and all the rich people moved to Southampton and Riverside and River Oaks...)

Most of the online biographies of Glenn McCarthy say that he and his wife moved to a modest house in a LaPorte suburb after they sold Glennlee. That material seems to come, usually, from _The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes_, by Bryan Burrough Here's a link to a Vanity Fair article by Burrough. The article incorrectly states that Faustine Lee McCarthy was the daughter of Thomas Lee (of Link-Lee mansion fame); actually, according to the Handbook of Texas online, her father was William Lee.

Vanity Fair article

About the street name: in the Village and Southgate areas, it is KELVIN. When Maroneal curves around to line up approximately on the same axis as Kelvin Street farther north, it is KELVING, going through the old McCarthy property. Check a map and you will see. I'll bet there is an interesting story there.

Gone by 1973, according to Historic Aerials. The woods were still there in 1973 and the property was developed by 1981.

Wasn't that the original University Savings building by Wenceslao Sarmiento, featured in the Houston Architectural Guide?

Ran across this list about asbestos & Houston bldgs. last night by accident, thought it was interesting.

http://www.asbestos.com/states/texas/houston.php

Says the list is compiled from many sources, don't know how accurate it is.

Looks like to me it's mostly just chronologically based. It it was built or substantially remodeled during The Golden Age of Asbestos

I was vacationing last week near Birmingham, Alabama. Anywhere I go for a few days, I always search out mod type houses to look at, and I found a local reference to a 1955 Better Homes and Garden house in nearby Vestavia Hills. We went to see it and found a whole neighborhood of extremely cool mods built on hilly, heavily wooded terrain. Doing a real estate search, seems like the 1500 square footish houses are selling in the $200-300K range. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera along, so no photos.

Thanks for the tip, Scott. Check this out: Magic City Modern blog

Magnolia Gardens: would that be this?

I really like mid-century modern design. Is it OK for me to hate this house?

Of course. Just don't suggest that it be torn down.

I clearly remember Swift's meat products in the grocery store when I was a kid. (60s-70s)

You're welcome. Looks like it lost one of it's little gold spheres, maybe to Hurricane Ike?

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the church that has geodesic domes on the roof that is located in Alief. I know it has been vacant for some years now. Any info would be greatly appreciated !

See this thread:

HAIF thread

and this Swamplot article:

Swamplot

I just called Brazos Bookstore and they don't have the Jenkins book yet. Houston Modsters, they're prolly gonna be calling you...

Wasn't there a "who's the architect?" thread about this house earlier? Is this the big square one with white columns all around?

It is well documented that the only Wright house in Houston is in Memorial, on Tall Oaks Road and not particularly visible from the road. The most charitable view I can take is that the author was referring to the modern-style houses and mentioned Wright as a layman's frame of reference. Interesting that he should have mentioned Chase. He was the first significant African-American architect in Houston and he did design a few great houses in Riverside, including his own. His body of work, however, was largely institutional and commercial. Additionally, I think there's one Staub, one Briscoe, and a coupla Bolton and Barnstone. When I think Riverside, I think Joseph Finger, Bailey Swenson, Lenard Gabert, Philip Willard, Lucian Hood, Mackie and Kamrath, et al.

Isn't that this? from BenH in the CAA tour thread?

Yes. Liquid detergent works better. You can transfer it ahead of time into a Big Gulp or similar cup for even faster deployment. Never did it myself but drove the getaway car several times. Bob Smith downtown was a particularly easy target, Transco was the Holy Grail.

Now, most nights, there is a city "park ranger" Jeep Cherokee parked either on Main or on Fannin near the circle keeping an eye on the fountain(s). It's been there since the Mecom repairs.